This invention relates generally to light pattern generators and, more particularly, to a light projection system for generating light patterns through a randomized fiber optic bundle.
Kaleidoscopes are used to generate changing and complex visual effects. However, they are limited in their usefulness because the visual image cannot be easily enlarged and displayed on a screen or other surface. In the past, musicians have created hand-held light pattern generators for producing a colorful, manually-controllable pattern on an adjacent screen. These generators direct white light through three color wheels and into three fiber optic bundles. The remote ends of the three bundles are not fixed and can be manually manipulated to generate a seemingly random pattern. Colored light emitted from the fiber optic bundles is directed through a kaleidoscopic objective lens for projection on a screen.
While such hand-held light pattern generators can create a wide variety of patterns, they require human interaction to change the pattern. A randomized visual image is created only when a human hand manipulates the position of the remote ends of the fiber optic bundles or when a different color wheel is selected. Further, the time-varying visual image tends to jerk and flash, and it is not smooth, with fluid-like flowing changes.
Accordingly, there is a need for a visual image generator that creates a wide variety of visual images without requiring human interaction. Further, it should be appreciated that there is also a need for a projection system that provides smooth, fluid-like flowing visual images, without jerking and flashing. The present invention provides the necessary solutions.